


houses swallowed by the earth

by cambion



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Fix-It of Sorts, M/M, Post-699-ish, self-indulgent dramatic nonsense
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-09
Updated: 2017-07-23
Packaged: 2018-11-30 01:55:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,547
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11453556
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cambion/pseuds/cambion
Summary: In which Sasuke leaves Konoha still, but this time not alone.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> hi!! i'm finally working on more fic. this is a pretty self-indulgent fic, trying to hash out some emotional conflicts i'm angry we don't see in canon. 
> 
> it shouldn't be too terribly long - the shortest 2 chapters and the longest like, 5 maybe. but i wanted to get ch 1 posted to get some motivation to work on more lol. hope y'all enjoy!

“So, you want to leave,” Kakashi says, elbows propped on the windowsill as he leans just outside of it, “Again.” 

His mask is pulled down just enough to sip at his beer, but he’s faced away, out into the nighttime village air. Were Sasuke younger, or healthier, or not about to jump out of his skin at any given moment, he might feel the urge to go and take a peek. There’s enough room beside Kakashi for it, after all, almost as if he left the space open for Sasuke to join him. But he’s none of those things, so he doesn’t, and Kakashi can calmly face away in privacy.

“It’d be different this time,” Sasuke says, hands folded on his lap. “ _ I’m not _ \- I’m not running off to get myself killed. I’m not who I used to be.” Inhaling heavily, he adds, “I need to see the world.”

The beer can Kakashi had given him sits untouched and unopened on the nightstand to his left. Since returning to Konoha, he’s spent more and more time here, in Kakashi’s apartment, sitting on the edge of the bed just as he is now, toes curling in unrest against the cold floor. Although Kakashi didn’t welcome him home with open arms, he did welcome him with an open door and fridge, and that’s more than enough. In a way it’s better - less smothering, more inviting. Easier. Usually, Kakashi doesn’t offer him alcohol, because he’s an adult, and the Hokage, and seems to enjoy pretending he’s good at either of those things, or whatever. But sometimes he can see the way Sasuke tightens and curls inside like a loaded spring, and relents, responsibility be damned. Sasuke’s sure he remembers what it’s like, even if he’s hazy on the details of what all Kakashi’s been through. However horrible it may have been, he doubts it can even scratch the surface of his own experience. It’s enough, though. He’s been trying to make it enough.

Tonight, though, Sasuke remains tightened; his lips loose with purpose rather than alcohol.

“Hm,” Kakashi hums in acknowledgement, “you were gone pretty long before. Did you not see enough of the world then?”

“Like I said, I was different than I am now. I need to look at the world with new eyes.”

“So you do.” His tone is… dismissive, not quite here, definitely not accepting what Sasuke is telling him. His nonchalance is fitting of small talk with his mind elsewhere, not of Sasuke announcing this major fucking life decision. Or maybe he is paying attention, and just isn’t worried about it. Does he think he could stop him? He couldn’t last time, no one could, and even if he’s not willing to spill any blood this time, he - “You’ve only just gotten back, don’t get cold feet already.”

“It’s been nine months, Kakashi,” he corrects. The ‘ _ -sensei’ _ hangs off unsaid, though it curls up underneath his tongue, old habits dying long and hard. One thing he can say for himself is that he has never, ever felt the urge to call the man ‘Rokudaime’. Small victories.

“Only nine months back after what, five years?”

“Four.”

“Ahh, so much better.”

“I really don’t need your sarcasm right now,” he sighs, straining in knuckles into tight white discs.

Kakashi turns around then, finishing up the motion of sliding his mask back over his nose before Sasuke can catch a glimpse. “You usually don’t,” he says, “but then, what  _ do _ you need? I’m not sure why you’ve come to me with this. Were you hoping for my blessing?”

So what, maybe he was. Not for any reasons of sentimentality, or encouragement in his actions - he knows what he needs to do and so he’ll do it, with or without approval, just as he always has. But, Kakashi’s blessing would mean having the Hokage on his side, an approved exit of the village rather than blatant abandonment as before. He’s still not reinstated officially - probably never will be, realistically - but he doesn’t need a bounty on his head for something as trivial as a soul-searching journey.

And well, there _ is _ one other thing Kakashi’s blessing may assist with.

Kakashi, catching on quick, says, “You know, I can’t stop Naruto from stopping you, no matter how far I outrank him. We all tried for years the first time.” He cracks his empty beer can down into a crumpled mess then, tossing it into the wastebasket across the room. “Naruto does as he pleases. Most so when it comes to you.”

Well, it was worth a shot. Sasuke sighs, standing, having heard more than enough; he’s said his piece. He has no guarantee Kakashi won’t set a bounty on him, but from the ease in Kakashi’s stance, he can assume his evasion of it is as much of a go-ahead as he’s going to get. “No matter, I can’t stay in Konoha any longer. And that’s that.”

They’re meant to be his final words to the man - maybe for tonight, maybe until he eventually does make it back to Konoha, whenever that may be, maybe until he ends up dead on a rock with no one to identify him but the buzzards. Whichever comes first. But Kakashi, as always, manages to get the final word in. “Sasuke?”

“What?” he asks, hand hovering over the knob to Kakashi’s front door.

“You should try talking to him, before you go,” he says. “He usually understands more than you think he will.”

He closes the door behind him.

* * *

 

He’d planned to tell Naruto anyway, even without Kakashi’s advice. The last thing anyone needs is for Sasuke to disappear without a word, and for Naruto to drop everything and run after him. Again. Naruto’s the Village’s  _ golden boy _ now, it seems, with admirer after admirer constantly nipping at his heels and foreign officials gifting him with bountiful thanks and wealth. (Nevermind that Sasuke’s rinnegan is the only reason they were able to  _ actually _ save everyone at the end, but, whatever. Sasuke wouldn’t want to be a hero, anyway. Really.) If Naruto disappeared, he’s sure the entire nation would break down in hysterics and he’d be even more of a public enemy than he is now. So, it’s better not to just bounce without a trace. He’s realistic, that way.

It’s a bittersweet feeling - the certainty with which he knows that Naruto  _ would _ drop everything to go after him. Four years of Naruto never once wavering proved that much to him, to the point that they’d both nearly lost their lives. It doesn’t answer the question of  _ why _ , but he guesses he can chalk that up to Naruto’s stupidity and leave it at that. (It itches at the back of his mind despite his efforts, but so do many things.)

Therefore, he’s far from surprised when the first thing out of Naruto’s mouth after he tells him is, “ _ No _ !” Naruto’s eyes flick to him in an instant, blue as always but burning in the way he normally only sees from him in combat.

Sasuke sighs, pinching at the bridge of his nose, “I knew that’s how you’d respond.”

“If you knew that, then why are you still telling me this like it’s normal! No, you’re not going anywhere, what!” Were it not Naruto who was shouting up a storm here, his volume would be far too high for sitting at the ramen stand in public as they are now. But it’s Naruto, and everyone knows him, and so they pretend the volume doesn’t bother their ears as much as it does. Sasuke bites his tongue on a chastization.

“I’m telling you because I’ve made up my mind,” he says, taking his bowl from the girl working the stand with a nod. What’s her name again? He’s been here enough times, before and since his return, but he can never seem to remember. Too many new faces after years with so few. And well, maybe he doesn’t actually care all that much. Regardless, after passing them their meals, she flits back, seemingly making an effort not to listen to their conversation. He appreciates it. “I’m going,” he continues. “It’s a peaceful journey, not like before.”

“Yeah,  _ sure _ ,” Naruto scoffs, crossing his one arm over his chest and not even touching the ramen sitting in front of him. _ Shit _ , that defeats the whole purpose of bringing him here. The news was meant to go down easier with a filling stomach. “Tsunade’s almost done with our new arms, you know. You gonna take off before you even get that? Her and Sakura have been workin’ so damn hard!”

“I don’t know if I even want the arm,” he says, uncomfortably shifting his left shoulder.

“ _ What _ !”

How he feels about the arm is… complicated. The idea of the Zetsu flesh itself is odd enough on its own. He doesn’t want to ever look down at his palms and see the rubbery, pearl-white flesh of an arm that isn’t even his, twisting and curling with his movements. There’s enough nightmares lurking in his skull about dead-looking skin, he could do without fuel for it. And, well. The trip is meant to be for retribution as much as it is to escape the suffocation of Konoha. A new arm feels… wrong. The gaping space where his limb once was has meaning - as much meaning as the matching void on Naruto’s body beside him.

But the feeling doesn’t appear to be mutual, with the way Naruto’s been going on and on about their new arms, and that’s fair, that’s fine. Naruto should have a full set of limbs, especially if he’s still reaching for the same ambitions he’s been since practically birth. The Hokage should be able to weave signs with both hands. He doesn’t have to see the same things Sasuke does. No one should.

Swallowing harshly, he says, “I just don’t want the arm. I’m sure it can be repurposed elsewhere; enough shinobi are missing arms out there.”

“But it’s like, built to process  _ your _ chakra or whatever, like to filter for the sharingan and shit,” Naruto says, clearly trying to repeat whatever Sakura had told him about how it worked.

“They can  _ re _ build it, then, for someone else’s chakra,” Sasuke responds, taking a bite of his ramen.

“Oh my god, you’re so - this is besides the point,” he gripes, finally grabbing his chopsticks. Rather than eating, though, he just pokes them in the broth, stirring it around anxiously. “I’m not letting you leave again, Sasuke.”

“I told you-”

“It’s different, it’s different, yeah yeah I know! You think I give a shit? I didn’t care that you left to be an international criminal or whatever, I cared that you left to be  _ alone _ .”

Dammit.

He brought them here partially because he hoped - maybe Naruto would be too embarrassed, or ashamed, or something, to bring out  _ actual _ emotions. But that was naive and he should’ve known that. Naruto isn’t afraid of his heart the way Sasuke always has been.

“I’m not letting you be alone again, Sasuke,” he says, softly, only for them to hear, angling his shoulders toward him and suddenly it’s hard to breathe.

He sighs, focusing his eyes back on his meal, refusing to make eye contact with Naruto right now. “Then what would you have me do? I can’t stay here.”

“Why not?” he asks, and it’s gentle, and he means it, and Sasuke wants to burn everything around him to the ground.

‘ _ Why not _ ’ he asks? Because every day he’s here he can see blood in the teeth of the smiles of everyone he passes. Because it sickens him that Kakashi knows what happened to his family because of this village and would still choose to lead it. Because it sickens him that Naruto might one day do the same. Because everyone here looks at him like he’s a demon ready to snap all their bones when he’s not sure he could ever even truly kill again. Because his own team left him behind here to hunt Orochimaru on their own, because they were more bloodthirsty than he can let himself be anymore. Because he’s still too bloodthirsty for anyone within these walls.

Because every day it’s blood, blood, blood, and there has to be a place where it isn’t.

But he doesn’t say any of that, he never would, he just grips his fist until his chopsticks snap within it. He hears Naruto next to him take a slurp of his ramen.

“Okay,” Naruto says.

“Okay?” What does he mean ‘okay’? He’s just gonna let him leave? Relief and betrayal are wrestling inside him, he doesn’t know how he’s supposed to finish this fucking meal, he -

“I’ll come with you.”

“You- what?”

Muffled and gross through his bites, he says, “You wanna leave, sure. But not on your own. And we’re coming back eventually. It’ll be like, a vacation.”

“I-” Sasuke starts, but all he has left is a nod and a breath of relief. He glances over, and Naruto’s smiling a little to himself. The bastard. “Okay.”

“So, when do we leave?”

* * *

 

 

About three hours out from Konoha, Sasuke realizes what a terrible idea this was.

It shouldn’t’ve been - it’s exactly what he wanted, even if he never would’ve let his thoughts close enough to properly acknowledge it. He’d spent too many sleepless nights, eyes snapped open, sprawled on Naruto’s couch, wondering what it’d be like to take him away from there and never look back. Just a packed bag, the rush of tree branches beneath his feet, and Naruto by his side. It always humiliated him, tightened up a ball of fear and shame in his gut, the feeling of desire or need for anyone making him sick. But that’s why those fantasies never left the earliest hours of the day.

He guesses fantasy Naruto tends to be a lot less frustrating that reality, though.

“We gotta stick to the roads,” he says whenever he can tell Sasuke’s eyes are wandering to the woods beside them. “Kakashi-sensei’s orders!” ‘ _ Stupid orders, _ ’ he thinks. Yeah, it makes them more traceable for Konoha in case something goes wrong. But it also makes them more traceable to  _ enemies _ , which they both have plenty of. The open road has a certain appeal to it, sure, but he can feel the targets all over his back here. It’s not comforting.

“Since when are you such a goody two-shoes?” Sasuke asks, even if it’s a dumb question.  _ Konoha’s golden boy _ , he remembers. Doesn’t get much goody-er than that.

That seems to ruffle some feathers, Naruto’s lip sticking out in that stupid pout, saying, “Since when are you scared of some random rogue ninja? We can take whoever shows up!”

It’s not that Sasuke disagrees, he just… He sighs, losing this argument for the third time that hour, “Fine.” Apparently pleased, Naruto immediately goes back to chattering away about more inane topics. Something stupid Kiba did before they left, something some kid said to him, whatever. Sasuke did his best to check out.

Having traveled with Taka for the better part of his time as a nukenin, company on the road is something he ought to be used to. But it was nothing compared to the way Naruto makes his ears burn, a mysterious and unsettling weight pushing at his side as if Naruto’s very being is radiating off onto him. In his absence, Sasuke felt a void, empty and aching, but his presence is suffocating, bearing down on his chest and ejecting the air from his lungs.

Being around Naruto feels like drowning.

Dragging him back into focus, Naruto asks, “Are you sure you should’ve talked to Sakura like that when we said goodbye?” It’s indirect, nothing like the tactless aggression he would’ve once given, having learned subtlety somewhere along the line, but it remains rhetorical and biting.

“She was being stubborn,” Sasuke answers, because she had been. He doesn’t see how his absence should have anything to do with her.

_ “We need to get out of the village for a little while. It’ll be good for us,” Naruto had said. _

_ “You mean Sasuke needs to get out of the village,” Sakura said, like Sasuke wasn’t even there. _

_ And maybe there was some more reasonable discussion in between, and maybe her concerns were founded, but you wouldn’t catch Sasuke admitting that. Just a cutting insult and a dramatic exit, a pissed off Naruto joining his side some time later, saying ‘We can go now.’ _

“She was just worried!”

“It’s not her business to be worried about.”

Naruto snorts in annoyance, always so defensive of the girl, “She’s our friend!”

“She’s  _ your _ friend,” Sasuke corrects.

Letting out a huff at that, Naruto’s finally silent. Took long enough - if Sasuke had wanted a chatty companion, he would’ve brought Suigetsu and Karin. At least then they would’ve babbled amongst themselves and left him out of it.

But somehow, he finds the silence is killing him. He can only take so many minutes of cicadas chirping in the trees and Naruto not saying a single word before Sasuke grinds out, “What?”

“Nothing,” he says, but it’s not at all reassuring, that stupid goddamn pout set securely on his face. How could he possibly think he’s being convincing? What kind of ninja is he?

‘ _ A godly ninja is what he is _ ,’ he corrects himself a bit bitterly. A ninja beyond compare (outside himself), enough to take down the origin of all chakra. Yet still, he’s all expression, all bright and blinding and boisterous, no tact or subterfuge to him. And well, maybe that’s what the shinobi world needs. Enough lies.

He’s being dramatic though, and he knows it. This isn’t a mission, it’s a petty disagreement about Sasuke’s social life that Naruto just can’t quite get over.

“Just spit it out.”

“I just think you’re an asshole when it comes to Sakura!” he, as requested, spits it out. “We’re a team, you shouldn’t shit on her all the time.”

The word ‘team’ raises bile in his throat, something insulting and naive about the implication. It’s been nine months and Naruto still doesn’t get where he stands on this. “I don’t know what you’re expecting of me. Should we stroll back to Konoha so I can apologize? ‘Oh, sorry Sakura, I know you’ve still got this delusion of playing house with me, so I should be more sensitive to your delicate little feelings. My bad.’”

“Ugh, that’s exactly what I mean! What the fuck, dude? She’s not even into you anymore!”

“So why does she still bother me?”

“Because she’s your friend, or at least she tries to be! Why’s it so hard for you to let people care about you?”

And there it is, a touch of something too real. He grinds his teeth, feeling the too-smooth slide over the false ones added to replace those missing. He wants to ask, ‘Why’s it so easy for you to forgive everyone?’ but he doesn’t, because there’s already too much vulnerability here. And besides, no emotional probing on Naruto’s part is going to change his annoyance with Sakura. He keeps walking.

“Why do you think I bother you all the time?” Naruto persists, angling himself as they walk so he’s just a bit ahead, forcing their eyes to lock.

Sasuke swallows. The implication between his assumption and the logic following is too thick, too on-the-nose. He’s not ready for that. “Because you’re a dumbass,” he says, speeding up his pace to pass him.

“Hey!” Naruto squawks after him, meeting his speed. The sun is close to setting.


	2. Chapter 2

Two towns and, miraculously, zero arguments later, they decide to make camp. They don’t venture too far off the road - Kakashi’s orders or, _whatever_ \- but they do find a decent clearing through the brush, a grassless patch surrounded by wildflowers. It’ll do.

“You sure we can’t find an inn or something?” Naruto whines, even as he slides his backpack off of his shoulders. It drops to the ground with a heavy and careless smack, clouds of dirt scattering from under it.

“I’m sure,” Sasuke answers. “We can’t afford an inn every single night, and we just headed out today. We’ll be fine.” Naruto makes a displeased grumble, but doesn’t argue any further. It’s clearly for show anyway - he’s been an active ninja for half a decade now, he can handle a little camping. Hell, when they were _genin_ they camped plenty, and even if he complained just as he does now, he was always the first one snoring away. With the way Sasuke always tossed and turned to catch any sleep, it'd made him furious.

A little reluctance is probably typical though, he reminds himself. As okay with sleeping in nature Naruto may actually be, it's realistic for him to not be jumping for joy over it. For Sasuke, after spending so long sleeping directly on stone, gravel and sand digging into his back, anything thicker than a mat feels practically suffocating to him.

In one fluid motion, he removes his bedroll from his pack and tosses it out, flat and haphazard onto the ground.

“It’s kinda nice bein’ outside the village without orders,” Naruto says conversationally with a stretch, rolling his shoulders on either side. His headband remains tightly fastened around his forehead, but his hair is beginning to grow longer than it's ever been, messy and scattered so there's only peeks of fabric around his head.

“Have you ever even been outside without a mission?” Sasuke asks, his tone sharp with a judgmental edge. In all honesty, he was shocked when Naruto offered to come with him - he’s such a _homebody_. Or, at the very least, he’s easily tied down by his many bonds, seeming to have made dozens and dozens of friends over the years; Konoha runs in his blood, filling up the gaps where a clan was never able to. (Sasuke’s blood runs dry.)

“Oh yeah,” Naruto answers his question, moving to set out his own bedroll opposite Sasuke’s in the clearing. “It’s been a while, but I left Konoha for uhh, two years?”

Well, that’s news to him; he tries not to show his surprise as he gets to work on the campfire. It’s not much effort, just a snip of wood from nearby trees, and a quick lightning jutsu to it. Fire would be easier, more to the point - it was once his preferred method for this, but he struggles still to control flames when weaving the signs one-handed. Lightning comes easier, having become his dominant chakra type from years of training. Content with the fire flickering away in front of him, he asks, “When?”

“I mean,” Naruto says, lips twisting up and eyes far off. “Right when you left, about.”

The obvious conclusion to the thought feels thick in his throat, so Sasuke finishes it, “To come find me.”

Taking a seat, Naruto says, “Uh, kinda. Like, yeah, we looked, but there wasn’t much of a trail at that point. Wherever you were most of that time, you were well-hidden.”

Sasuke doesn’t remember much of his early time with Orochimaru well. It was all very dark - damp caves with rigorous training and things he’d rather forget, things he only holds onto memories of from the white ribbons of scars that wrap up and down his limbs. But he does remember arriving that first day. All the energy ripped from his body and skin slick with rain, he asked for barriers, for cloaking jutsus, for anything to keep Konoha off his tail (to keep Naruto off his tail). _‘You think I’m foolish enough to have not already done that?’_ Orochimaru had asked in place of an answer. Sasuke had tried to take that as a comfort.

“So, it was more just spent training with Ero-Sennin rather than like, a man-hunt,” Naruto continues, snapping Sasuke's eyes back into focus on him. He's shed his cloak and jacket, and his eyes are drawn to the space where Naruto's collarbone lays just above the neckline of his mesh undershirt. Before he knows it, his eyes are glazed over again. Focus was all he had, was the difference between life and death for him for so long. And yet here he is, so constantly slipping from it.

“You got me good at the Valley, I had to catch up,” Naruto says.

It’s been years since then, but Sasuke still finds himself wanting to correct him. No, Naruto didn’t get him good. They were as evenly matched as could be, as they’d ever been - if not more so finally, because he had the curse mark then to compete with the nine-tails, even if he had no idea at the time why Naruto had radiated with fire all over his body. He'd been prepared to become a monster for power, yet had never expected Naruto to already be the same. Always the same with them. The difference that led to his victory was luck, the difference was Sasuke was better at sealing his heart away when he pushed himself to. Not perfect, clearly, evidenced by the man still breathing away in front of him, but better.

But Sasuke says nothing to correct him, and instead says, “I’m surprised you left for that long. The village must’ve been pissed when you came back, I’m sure they thought they’d finally gotten rid of you.”

"No such luck!" Naruto exclaims with a grin, and Sasuke tries not to smile back.

* * *

 

Naruto leaves briefly, returning with a bundle of freshly caught fish. He remembers the Forest of Death, Naruto ankle deep in the river and Sasuke watching him long after he needed to. His ribcage feels tight, suddenly. 

* * *

Sasuke takes the first shift for watch. When traveling with Taka, he'd rarely had to do this, Karin's sensing capabilities strong enough to rouse her from even the deepest sleep should a threat approach. But although Naruto may be an Uzumaki, he's nowhere near her level, and so they take turns.

He's not certain he'd feel confident enough to leave them vulnerable like that, though, even if Naruto were that aware. Best not to leave these things to chance, he thinks.

* * *

The first day Sasuke woke up in a bed in Konoha - after the war, after the battle, after losing half his arm and all of his initiative, after saving the whole goddamn world and being carted back to Konoha for want of anywhere else to go - he felt as though he'd made a horrible, horrible mistake.

Certainly, he'd lost. Certainly, there was no killing Naruto, not now. Maybe there never had been, maybe this was just a horrible run from the inevitable fact that as long as he lived, so would Naruto.

But if there was no killing Naruto, there was no killing anybody. And as his restless sleep tormented him, as his fists clenched and unclenched in anxious, aimless energy, he found that in not killing, he could not imagine how there could be living.

He gave himself a month living in Konoha before he lost his marbles, tops.

At month three, somehow still alive, somehow still surviving, Suigetsu said to him, "We're leaving."

"Who's _'we'_?" Sasuke had asked. It was still a wonder to him how Taka was allowed within Konoha walls, and not even behind bar, but he imagined Naruto gave a very convincing plea to their new Hokage. It likely helped that their new Hokage frankly, did not care enough, so long as they stayed out of trouble. And they had, thus far.

" _'We'_ as in Taka," Suigetsu answered.

"I don't remember being consulted."

"Okay, _'we'_ minus you, smartass," he said. "Orochimaru's still out there, thanks to _somebody_." Sasuke's stomach had dropped at that. It's not that he felt... good about bringing back Orochimaru - he tried not to let guilt come to him, but there was little else to describe the feeling it gave him. It was a careless choice, it was what had to be done to get him his answers. It was selfish. Frankly, he was appalled the world governments hadn't yet moved to wipe him out. But then, he guesses, they hadn't beforehand either. "So we're gonna do something about it."

"You're free to," Sasuke had said, because he could tell Suigetsu's tone hid a request in it, even if he posed it as a guilt-tripping statement. There would always be some dynamic of him as leader, no matter how any of them felt on the matter.

"You're invited too, if you want," he'd said. And Sasuke had considered the offer, felt like he ought to have said yes, felt like he ought to have jumped at the first really good opportunity to get the hell out of here and do something. But he didn't. He couldn't say why, but he didn't. The thought of it, then, left him with blood-stained vision and something loose in his throat. And so he said nothing. "That's what I expected. Not all of us have a boyfriend here."

That wasn't why, but he didn't bother correcting him, either.

* * *

He doesn't get the chance to wake Naruto for the shift change before they're ambushed.

It shouldn't be anything - he has the opponents analyzed in practically an instant. A ragtag group of youth (though admittedly, they might be older than he is) not unlike those Orochimaru often had in his ranks. Scooped up young, angry, full of loss, without direction or affiliation. They bear no headbands, not even those with a slash through them, yet he can feel chakra waves coming off of them, clearly trained in the ways of the shinobi and not mere civilians.

But not trained enough to matter against _them_. They're children, and he is Sasuke Uchiha, one of the most feared ninja in the five great nations. He almost considers taking them down without waking Naruto up, but they're on Naruto's sleeping form before he has the chance (raising a swell of anger in him, fingers tight, stance loose, ready to jump -). Instantly at attention, Naruto shakes them off and tries to take in the situation himself. "What the hell!?" he shouts, taking in the situation with less subtlety than Sasuke had.

They don't answer though, sliding through the dust and gaining balance in their stances, hands gripped on their drawn weapons. Not your average burglars then - but then, maybe they've done this enough to know when a robbery can succeed with talk and when it can't.

Or maybe they're just terrified.

Before he can follow that train of thought too long, though, one is plunging down at him from a tree above, kunai in both hands, aimed at his neck. He sidesteps easily, foot sliding underneath theirs as they land, tossing them face-first onto the ground. This seems to catch them by surprise, eyes inhumanly wide as they peer back up at him from over their shoulder, and he remembers that while most ninja are fast, no one is quite as fast as an Uchiha with an active sharingan. It must be disconcerting, at best. He smirks a little at that.

Across the clearing, Naruto has summoned a pair of clones, and is disabling the remaining two of the group, slow and wary in his blows - clearly having made the same assessment as Sasuke. They aren't a threat if they don't let them be. Returning his focus to his own captured rogue-nin, he plants a foot on their wrist, disabling any jutsus to be cast, and draws his sword.

"I'm sorry," the ninja rushes out as his heel digs into their arm. "You don't have to kill us, ple-please don't kill us."

His hand tightens on the hilt of his sword, tastes the bitterness of vinegar in the back of his mouth. _How does he look right now-_ "I'm not going to kill you," he says. "But if you don't go on your way, I'm going to make you wish I had."

"I-I'm sorry," the kid continues, because this _is_ a kid, and it becomes increasingly clear that Sasuke was far too generous in his estimate of their age. They can't be much older than he was when he left Konoha, tops, everything save for their excessive height screaming _'this is a fucking infant'_. They may be trained, but he wonders if they ever even made it to genin, officially. Academy students running wild in the aftermath of a war.

He looks up and meets eyes with Naruto, who has for his part tied the other two together, back to back, not unlike how Naruto looked tied to the log in their first test together. "Hey!" Naruto shouts at him. "Stop scaring the kid!"

Sasuke scoffs, stepping off of them and resheathing his sword. The kid sits up, face attempting to be angry but unable to hide the sniffle twitching from their nose. Blood pours from their face, apparently torn open from the impact with the ground.

_'Come on, Sasuke,' Itachi had said, kneeling in front of him. 'Sit still. You're bleeding.'_

_'I'm a ninja!' Sasuke had pouted, 'I can handle a little blood.'_

_'Of course you can,' Itachi had said. 'But you can also handle a little band-aid. Now like I said, sit still.'_

"Put away the kunai," Sasuke says. "And sit still. You're bleeding."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey everyone! this chapter's a bit shorter than i wanted, but i wanted to get something posted for sasuke's birthday. i'm really excited about this though! some plot points i hadn't been certain of before are starting to come together. 
> 
> hopefully will be updating again soon! as always thanks for reading!


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